Authors:
Stefano D’Angelo
;
Antonio Ghezzi
;
Angelo Cavallo
;
Andrea Rangone
and
Salvatore Annunziata
Affiliation:
Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milano, Italy
Keyword(s):
Experimentation, Corporate Entrepreneurship, Organizational Design, Lean Startup, Business Model, Business Model Innovation, Digital Transformation.
Abstract:
Experimentation has become one the most influential approaches to entrepreneurship revolutionizing the way new businesses are launched and enabling entrepreneurs to test their business model through rigorous experiments. While there is a growing body of research investigating experimentation in a startup context, there is no corresponding literature exploring the role of experimentation in corporate entrepreneurship activities despite the increasing interest in experimentation among managers and the growing practitioner literature urging incumbent organizations to adopt experimentation. Recently, the ideas developed around experimentation have been taken up by incumbent organizations, with the promise that this approach can benefit corporate entrepreneurship activities by accelerating them, reducing resource expenditure, and increasing the chances of success. This is more relevant in the current context where companies have to face fast-changing customer needs and market trends, as w
ell as the design of complex value propositions. Drawing on an exploratory multiple case study, this study explores how experimentation is conducted in incumbent organizations and used as a tool to support corporate entrepreneurship. Based on the findings of this study, we provide contributions to research and practice on experimentation in corporate entrepreneurship.
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